September 2007

Mayor Greg Nickels announced last week his 2008 proposed budget includes $3.5 million to help fund 84 permanent supportive housing studio apartments for chronically homeless people.

Half the units at the Plymouth Housing Group's First and Cedar project would use a "Housing First" model, which combines homeless housing with important in-house medical and mental health services and other support programs.

"For too long, we attempted to manage homelessness through a system that in many cases provides little more than a mattress for the night," said Nickels.

At Large in Ballard by Peggy Sturdivant

There are those who reset their lives on Jan. 1 but my life has always followed the academic calendar.

Life after Labor Day is a new beginning with resolutions on exercise and packing healthier lunches. So the last week of August is when I take stock of the last year and set my course for the next nine months.

More people are moving to, and moving through, Ballard to catch a buzz. They are saying "yes" to mopeds, those noisy, 50cc motor scooters with pedals that hit nearly 38 miles per hour.

Don't laugh.

They're cheap, fun to ride and get 100 miles per gallon. Over 40 area enthusiasts belong to the Mosquito Fleet, a moped gang who display a curious combination of machismo and modesty on their tough little toys.

Many live in Ballard, while others are searching for a place here.

Summer fun in the 20th Century

By Kay F. Reinartz

While winters on Salmon Bay were, and are still, marked by lots of damp chilly weather, the summers were generally dry and sunny with light long into the evening.

Ballard, like West Seattle, was blessed with wide sandy beaches. Golden Gardens, then as now, drew the young people with bathing and beach games during the warm summer afternoons. As night fell beach fires appeared all along the shoreline. Capt.

Mom Lynn Brown chats with Seattle School's new superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson. Jojo, 10, is entering 5th-grade. He says that when he grows up he wants to direct a new Godzilla movie. The Browns live one block from Viewlands Elementary where Jojo used to attend before it closed this summer. The two schools merged this year

Canoers paddle past Shilshole Marina.

On Labor Day, just inside the Ballard Locks entrance, Brittany Rupert, 16, of Gold Bar, performs a trick on her unicycle called "wheel walking." She propels the unicycle pushing the wheel forward with her foot, without using the pedals. A sign posted nearby reads "Walk your bicycles," and although she is not riding a bicycle, the park ranger, pictured right, spots her and in a moment will politely ask her to walk her vehicle.

The Sea Rover was docked near Pacific Fisherman recently. A stroll on the dock at the end of 24th Avenue Northwest offers views of many ships, but watch out for the Canada goose droppings.

We are deeply saddened and troubled by the inconsistencies coming from Seattle elected officials as our community is faced with a depleting supply of affordable housing due largely to condo conversions.

The working class citizens that have made Ballard great and literally built it from the ground up are actually being forced out. Affordable rentals like the Lock Vista Apartments are being gobbled up by developers, turning $660 a month studios into a $250,000 condo.

Many of the residents are public employees, artists, wage workers or retired.

Editor's note:

This was written by a teacher and homeowner in West Seattle, but what she describes is relevant to what is happening here in Ballard, too. We would be interested in hearing from Ballard residents who have had similar reactions to the changes in housing all around them. As the piece states, we live in a community, but not all of us are aware that we have a say about such changes.

By Jennifer Hall

Ah, summer.

It's a time for harried teachers to rest and reflect; a time for us to center ourselves in our homes and our families.